Poncho's, Poncho's everywhere..and let's not forget the itchy feet too! An August TR

Ponchos, Ponchos everywhere Updated 11/16

Welcome Welcome to my August 2011 trip Report... be warned.. U will get wet..you may even get soaked.. so grab your poncho and join us! ( read the Pre-Trip report here)



Trip dates: August 18-29 2011. Room only on August 18th, Free dining from 8/19-8/29

Resort~ Pop Century..my first time at a Value.. 2 rooms

Who? Well lets see we have:

ME: Alison..I turned 36 while in Disney. I have been a Disney fan my whole life. I could live in Disney. I made 2 Disney trips in 19 months in 1999 and 2000 then I shelved my Disney World dreams when I met my now husband and we had 3 kids in 3 years.Fast forward 10+ years and we were finally ready and able to take the plunge and take the 4 kids! I homeschool 3 of the 4 kids ( the oldest is graduated) plus I work a day job doing office type work for the family business and I bartend 2-4 nights a week at my best friends nightclub.

Eric: 39.. a now reformed Disney Skeptic. He was not thrilled with this trip in the planning and paying stage.. and even up til the we arrived stage. He only had 6 Flags to picture in his head what Disney might be like. Well let's just say if I had a nickel for each time he said "this place is awesome"( which was almost the trip report title BTW)..well I could buy us all AP's and go back again this year!

Noah: Turned 17 on this trip. Has been to WDW twice before..once at 4.5 and once at almost 6.5 ( for Christmas no less).. he was above all the most excited for this trip aside from myself.. he knew what to expect and he was giddy like a 6 year old school girl any time you mentioned the trip. Noah is currently a "sandwich artist" at Subway while he decide's what's next in his life! warning prone to extreme teenage mood swings!

Kate: 16.. Noah's girlfriend. nice girl.. but let's just say no girlfriends/boyfriends will ever be invited again!

Declan: 9.5 going on 90.. we always say he's an Old man trapped in a kids body. He was the kiddo I was most worried about at Disney as he has a tendency to suck the fun out of things. Declan tends to overthink, over worry and over control things. He's a fab kid, smarter than any 9.5 year old should be and is a great athlete. He was super excited to go to Disney but due to his issues with the unknown he had a giant knot in his tummy too!

Jadziah: 7 almost 8.. she is by far my most even tempered kiddo. She was giddy and unworried about the trip. She required a disney shirt for each day we were there and yes..she got them..lol hey it pays to be the only girl outta 4 kids right? ( oh JahD Zee Uh like in Star Trek Deep Space nine.. yes I named my daughter after a character in a TV show..I'm a star trek nut and proud of it)

Taejan: 5 almost 6 ( as in he turns 6 a mere 3 days after we left Disney). There are few words to accurately describe Taejan ( Tay-Gin we made this one up). He has the best personality, is beyond outgoing.. vocal and full of love and life.. he's also a putz.. a VERY small but BIg putz.. no is just a word he laughs at.. he made the trip very stressful at times..but oh well..such is life. he also was the catalyst for many of the great "awwwww moments" on this trip as well!

Elaine AKA Gigi: My mother.. she has also been to WDW 2 other times ( with Noah and I). She was a great help with the 3 younger kiddo's and she fully enjoyed her time at Disney with us. She did NOT like the heat ( but then again which one of us did???)

So there's the cast of this mighty adventure.. coming up.. the "pre disney" part of the trip!

 

[silver1113]

yea!!! I can't wait for more!

 

[Alison1975]

About to start writing

 

[Alison1975]

Attack of the Tie Dye krew!

Before the trip I had everyone over for dinner and we tie dyed a bunch of shirts. Then after I washed them all I wrote "DisneyPalooza" on the back of all 21 shirts and gave them all back. We planned to wear them all to our Grand Gathering breakfast at Tony's.

I am really pleased at how the shirts came out. My kids have tie dyed before, and a few of the Sweener kids had..but no one else.

What'cha think?This is Missy and a few of her krew:

I really wish we had the photopass pictures. I have been informed that it has FINALLY been ordered.. so once that comes I will have a lot of great shots to add to this TR! We have some of all 21 of us in our tie dye and we look awesome!

Here's more:

Notice the one kid in the green shirt? He wanted nothing to do with tie dye shirts so he opted for green with black.. so the kid that prefers to blend in stuck out like a sore thumb in the group that day.. but he went back for a nap not long after breakfast anyway..lol

Since our Breakfast was early we had some great shots of the place nearly empty:

 

[Alison1975]

Anyone?

I just started adding chapter links..anyone willing to go thru them and see if they flow for me?

 

[usd2bmd]

I just started adding chapter links..anyone willing to go thru them and see if they flow for me?

Just checked and it flows perfect...:sohappy:

 

[Disneydreamer23]

i want more i love this TR

 

[Alison1975]

Just checked and it flows perfect...:sohappy:

Sweet thanks a ton! Next trip..i will do chapter links as I write,..LOL

 

[Alison1975]

i want more i love this TR

Thank you! More should be up tonight!

 

[silver1113]

The Tie-Dye is great! Too bad for the party pooper.

 

[Alison1975]

Our Grand Gathering Breakfast

After our group shot we headed to check in at Tony's for our Grand Gathering breakfast. I checked the 21 of us in .. it amused me that didn't have us listed under a family name but rather "DisneyPalooza".

Monty, Lanee,Ziah and Rana:

Don, Taejan, Declan , Jadyn, Epiphani and half of Dee..

Table one.. I was glad we were all seated basically together for this meal!

Table 2

We had a nice waitress. As we sat down Declan was, again, called a pretty princess. This was about the 1000'th time this trip. So I said "prince" and quick as a wit she told him "well it's better to be a pretty princess than an ugly prince"..I thought I was going to die laughing. Needless to say I say that to him about once a day ( as he is often called a girl..sigh). I almost titled this TR that..but the kids vetoed it!

The meal was pre-plated..and she brought out all the meals but didn't mention my allergy so I told her and the chef made me a gluten free plate. I was not impressed with the food overall but I'm not a breakfast person so.

The characters started arriving.. more of the same ones we've eaten with before..but they kids didn't care at all! Declan was tucked in the back of one of the table's with Monty and was not interested in character pictures.

Goofy found his soul mate in Noah I think..LOL

Up Next.. part 2

 

[Alison1975]

Our Grand Gathering Breakfast

After our group shot we headed to check in at Tony's for our Grand Gathering breakfast. I checked the 21 of us in .. it amused me that didn't have us listed under a family name but rather "DisneyPalooza".

Monty, Lanee,Ziah and Rana:

Don, Taejan, Declan , Jadyn, Epiphani and half of Dee..

Table one.. I was glad we were all seated basically together for this meal!

Table 2

We had a nice waitress. As we sat down Declan was, again, called a pretty princess. This was about the 1000'th time this trip. So I said "prince" and quick as a wit she told him "well it's better to be a pretty princess than an ugly prince"..I thought I was going to die laughing. Needless to say I say that to him about once a day ( as he is often called a girl..sigh). I almost titled this TR that..but the kids vetoed it!

The meal was pre-plated..and she brought out all the meals but didn't mention my allergy so I told her and the chef made me a gluten free plate. I was not impressed with the food overall but I'm not a breakfast person so.

The characters started arriving.. more of the same ones we've eaten with before..but they kids didn't care at all! Declan was tucked in the back of one of the table's with Monty and was not interested in character pictures.

Goofy found his soul mate in Noah I think..LOL

Up Next.. part 2

 

[plaz10]

I absolutely love Taejan's facial expression on the "Table 1" picture. Fantastic! Your kids are so adorable...and very photogenic! Maybe you should take some of those modelling offers into consideration!

The one of Noah and Goofy is priceless. He looks so happy! The gf must have been behaving herself that morning! :lol:

 

[Alison1975]

Grand gathering part 2

I think this may be one of the only shots of Missy and I from this trip. Honestly except for the 7 meals we all ate together we really didn't see much of each other on the trip. We did spend a good amount of this day together though,

I love the whole "dining plan" and "charging back to your room" part of this vacation. In fact when we got home it was rather hard to get used to paying cash again..lol.

Tony came out and gave us all our special buttons what would be our "fastpass" for the PhilHarMagic show.we ate, etc then we went on our way. My mother decided to go back to the resort to rest and do some laundry since we had plans to be at the park til after Wishes.

As we left the restaurant Pinocchio was just setting up so we got to see him..I love this guy!

After this the teens went their own way and we sent the 3 husbands off to gather Splash Mountain fastpasses. We waited and waited for the husbands by PhilHarmagic..I texted mine.. Melissa's was in the bathroom. All of a sudden he was with us but Brian and Eric were not.. Don had "accidently " forgotten them..huh??LOL

We went and used our button for the show. It was cute..there was a little guy about 2 maybe 3 behind me that was NOT liking the show. He was crying and wanted to go home so bad.. I felt so terrible for him.

Next we grabbed some Pooh Fastpasses and headed off to Snow White. I love this silly little ride and wanted my kids to experience it before it's gone. By the time we are able to go to WDW again it will certainly be closed.

Well since this is a "scary" ride we screamed.. a lot..thru the whole thing.. now we had friends in front and behind so we ( hopefully) didn't disturb people..my kids thought it was hysterical!

And if you saw this:

On August 24th.. I'm sorry.. I didn't condone it.. they aren't not mine.well the 2 on the left are...but they did not climb!

 

[Alison1975]

I absolutely love Taejan's facial expression on the "Table 1" picture. Fantastic! Your kids are so adorable...and very photogenic! Maybe you should take some of those modelling offers into consideration!

The one of Noah and Goofy is priceless. He looks so happy! The gf must have been behaving herself that morning! :lol:

Taejan is a trip..VERy much an entertainer.. he'd be an awesome child actor..

Noah was so happy..he usually was until she ruined the moment.. sigh. He can't wait until we go back.. he just knows she is NOT invited!

 

[Alison1975]

A ghost and a few mountains

After Snow White we decided to hit up the Haunted Mansion again... on the way the kids explored:

This is just too much foreshadowing for me..lol

On the way down to Liberty Square we got some comments and looks because of 20 people in tie dye.. I think a few people may have been having some 70's flashbacks including a CM who called us "psychedelic"

After we rode HM We went and got Big Thunder fastpasses then headed to use our Splash FastPasses. The line was LONG..for standby.. it was very fast for those of us with FP's.. sometimes the looks you get when going thru the FP line are very striking.. hey it's not my fault you all didn't get FP's is what I say back with my eyes!

Taejan loved it but said never again!

we were split up in several logs.. Brian bought this picture of our log:

Up Next.. part 2

 

[Alison1975]

A ghost and a few mountains part 2

After Splash we headed over to Big Thunder. Mavrik ( who rode Splash) made it thru one height check for this ride but then was taken off the ride before it started and remeasured by a different CM and not allowed on. This also happened at Star Tours . Moral of that is.. just because they are deemed tall enough for some rides they made not for others with the same height limit. And also they may make it thru one check point..but not another!

Declan and Monty, Epiphani and Ziah:

Taejan and Declan HATED this ride.. in fact Declan cried for half of it.. Jadziah LOVED it ( she's my thrill ride kid). Declan was mad at me for a few hours after for making him go on it!

Next stop was The Country Bears.. Mavrik decided to make certain that Jadziah remember she was HIS girlfriend!

We had a longish wait but it was totally ok ...we were out of the sun and the extreme heat!

After that Brian and I bolt to grab Buzz Fastpasses for the whole group.. we met back up with everyone at Pooh.

Rana and I:

 

[plaz10]

HAHAHA the one of Declan on Big Thunder Mountain - looks like he's saying "OH S**T!" :ROFLOL: Don't worry...I closed my eyes on EVERY ride (with the exception of SSE and...that might be it) including Peter Pan's flight. So he'll get over it with time. It took me 3 trips to want to ride everything and 4 for me to be completely and overly obsessed with the place!

 

[Alison1975]

HAHAHA the one of Declan on Big Thunder Mountain - looks like he's saying "OH S**T!" :ROFLOL: Don't worry...I closed my eyes on EVERY ride (with the exception of SSE and...that might be it) including Peter Pan's flight. So he'll get over it with time. It took me 3 trips to want to ride everything and 4 for me to be completely and overly obsessed with the place!

Hee hee.. he's just NOT a thrill kinda kid at ALL

 

[Alison1975]

Please don't sit there!

Oh between Big Thunder and The Country Bears we stopped for snacks ( right outside BTMR). I asked my kids NOT to sit on the curb thing.. yet my daughter did..and sat in bird poo.. yes.. all over her shorts. She had a meltdown because i only had extra clothes for Taejan. So she had to wear Taejan's shorts. They were grey and certainly didn't scream "BOY". All day she whinned about them. We tried 2 or 3 stores to buy her new ones..but they had nothing we thought she'd ever wear again at home so she got none. She was NOT happy about this.. oh well dear daughter..next time mommy says "please don't sit there.." LISTEN!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Oh between Big Thunder and The Country Bears we stopped for snacks ( right outside BTMR). I asked my kids NOT to sit on the curb thing.. yet my daughter did..and sat in bird poo.. yes.. all over her shorts. She had a meltdown because i only had extra clothes for Taejan. So she had to wear Taejan's shorts. They were grey and certainly didn't scream "BOY". All day she whinned about them. We tried 2 or 3 stores to buy her new ones..but they had nothing we thought she'd ever wear again at home so she got none. She was NOT happy about this.. oh well dear daughter..next time mommy says "please don't sit there.." LISTEN!

This is so funny and made me think of my recent "told you so" moment with my husband. We went to a local amusement park this summer, and me being my normal OCD self, packed an extra outfit for each person and left it in the car. My husband asked why and I told him because you never know what may happen. Wouldn't you know it, he was the one who sat in something and needed the extra pair of shorts I had packed him!! Big "told you so"!!